Star Roofer in NZ Roofing Games final is a ‘She’
Star Roofer in NZ Roofing Games final is a
‘She’
Gina Reuben from
Tauranga is a grandmother of 2 and competing in the finals
of New Zealand’s first Roofing Games. She is also the only
female to be in the race and showing no sign of shying
away.
“I’m excited and nervous,” giggles Gina, over the phone from THC Roofing Tauranga. “I just love roofing.” When asked what it is she loves about it, she says, “The open air, being in nature. I’m a bit of a wild one at heart.” Gina started roofing at 19, and due to a small personal side-track, put it away for a while. Last year, she approached the owner of THC Roofing – her old boss, and he offered her job back. “He tested me out and said yep we’ll give you a try.”
That ‘try’, has turned out to put Gina on the NZ Roofing map. She has secured a place among 8 finalists, from 350 competing roofers NZ-wide – all blokes and mostly fit and young. Gina’s husband and grown son are all roofers. “Around the dinner table it’s ‘roofing this’, ‘roofing that’,” she laughs. “And my two grandkids are very, very proud of me.” The roofing gang of 22 men she works with are also rapt for her. She mainly works on large commercial buildings in the current Tauranga build boom. Some buildings are 16 metres high. The heights, she says, gets easier with time. “I was nervous on my first big height, but you start to get used to it. It’s awesome now as New Zealand has strict safety codes for roofers, we have to wear hard hats and harnesses. I like working on commercial as you have lots of others to help you. And there’s cranes now to help with big lifts.” Gina adds, women are good because they multi-task. In the future, she would like to join NAWIC (National Association of Women in Construction).to network with other women in building.
The
punchy fast-paced, 3-hour long Roofing Games is an MRM (NZ
Metal Roofing Manufactures) initiative, to check out the
performance and skill level of metal roofing installers. It
reaches its zenith on the final day of this year’s RANZ
(Roofing Association of NZ) conference next Friday, July
13th. The games will be at the Vodafone Events Centre, South
Auckland.
The highest scoring four skilled fixers will
be chasing a $5000 travel prize and the four highest scoring
intermediate level fixers will compete for travel worth
$2,500.
Traditionally, the Expo/Workshops of the RANZ
Conference have been open to members only.
But next
year, RANZ CEO Graham Moor indicates they are likely to open
their doors to the public. Tertiary education students,
apprentices, could come at a discounted rate. This would be
in alignment to help ease the current skill gap in the NZ
Roofing and Construction scene in general. We all know Kiwi
build and huge housing booms are on their way.
Graham
says, “This is an invigorating event to be part of. There
is a definite need for skills upgrades in roofing and
construction right now. With the lack of tradespeople, high
construction demand and
KiwiBuild- we have to keep
lifting the levels of skilled workers. We also need to
invest in our youth-we are, with a roofing school as part of
our strategic plan.” RANZ will celebrate its 25th
Anniversary next year. And the national conference is likely
to be held in the South Island. “The positive feedback and
enthusiasm from participating roofers has RANZ looking at
how to better support this NZMRM initiative for next
year,” Graham says.
The exercise benchmarks the standards to be achieved across the industry, the MRM-funded, RANZ supported event provides a clear picture of what’s needed to improve workmanship standards.
The competition has four modules based on the RANZ How-to-Handbook on metal roof flashings which features the most commonly found details required for residential roofing. Installers have competed individually on a module and have been judged on their delivery and understanding of good trade practice, the quality of their work, housekeeping and safety in the work area and time taken to complete the exercise.
Roofer Max Brough and Noel Sands, who have
taken this roadshow event to the North and South Islands
this year, say installers have particularly enjoyed the
competitive element of the project and the team building
benefits for participating roofing companies has been
rewarding. Noel says three expert kiwi Roofers will judge
the installations.
The Roofing Games are also
sustainable. What happens to the roofs once they’re built
after competition? They are broken down and the materials
recycled.
NZ ROOFING GAMES
2018 Finalists
1st North Island –
Intermediate 2nd North Island –
Intermediate
Connor
DEELEY Gina REUBEN
Turfreys
Roofing THC Roofing
Palmerston
North. Tauranga
1st North Island – Skilled 2nd
North Island - Skilled
Zach
FLOWLER Shane
RATCLIFFE
Capital Roofing
Solutions Roofrite
Wellington Taupo
1st South
Island – Intermediate 2nd South Island –
Intermediate
William
CHAPMAN Cory GREEN
Freeman
Roofing Freeman Roofing
Blenheim Nelson
1st
South Island – Skilled; 2nd South Island –
Skilled;
Courtney
McDOWELL Matt McDOUGALL
ATD
Roofing Futureproof
Roofing
Cromwell Christchurch